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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27920719">The Cat Princess</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akumeoi/pseuds/Akumeoi'>Akumeoi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Catboys &amp; Catgirls, Childhood Friends, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Light Angst, M/M, Shapeshifting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 20:07:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,279</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27920719</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akumeoi/pseuds/Akumeoi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Young Sora finds a bedraggled grey kitten in his backyard one rainy day. When his mom lets him keep it he soon discovers that in fact, it's not a kitten... he's a shapeshifting boy named Riku. But Riku can't remember where he came from, so Sora and his mom let him stay with them, and the two boys swiftly become best friends. Who will they grow up to be, and will Riku ever be able to solve the mystery of his past?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Fandom Trumps Hate 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Cat Princess</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaiserinAstraia/gifts">KaiserinAstraia</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Astraia: Thank you so much for another wonderful year of friendship. Also for bidding on me in the Fandom Trumps Hate auction. Somehow this ended up being an extremely trope-filled tribute to Studio Ghibli’s “The Cat Returns”. I have no idea how that happened... whoops. I also know it was supposed to be a max of 5,000 words, but you get a few extra. I hope it hits the spot!</p><p>Prompt: Riku is a fluffy grey cat boy with a sliding scale of catness (from anime boy to actual cat). Any world is OK, Sora is human.</p><p>Thank you to Curiousscarletteyes for the beta help!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Alright, Sora, you can play outside now.”</p><p>The back door opened and Sora barrelled out with all the speed his chubby little legs could muster. Immediately he spied a big, shining puddle amid the grass and made a beeline for it. Sploosh! Drops of muddy water flew through the air as Sora jumped, coating his little white wellington boots and splotching the green frogs on the back of his rain jacket.</p><p>At five years old, Sora loved those frogs – and real ones, too. He also loved worms, bugs, turtles, and fish, which was why he always begged to play outside in the rain. If no real turtles or fish showed up, well, an interesting rock could easily become a turtle to a little boy with an imaginative mind.</p><p>Most rainy days, his mom would make him wait until only a few drops were falling before releasing him into the backyard. Sometimes she would join him as he romped amid the water, mud, and grass, but today she had placed a chair just inside the open back door and was watching him from the warm confines of the house to make sure that he was safe.</p><p>Giggling to himself, Sora splashed around the yard, until he settled in the back corner where there was a nice patch of mud between the border of the grass and one of the bushes that rimmed the fence-line. For a while he was content to pat little balls of mud into funny shapes, humming to himself. When he grew bored he kicked all of his creations back into the soup from whence they had come, then turned to seek out more interesting pastures.</p><p>But just as Sora was about to run over to another mud patch on the other side of the lawn, he heard a sound that made him pause, tilting his head curiously.</p><p>What he heard was a squeaky chirp. There was silence for a few moments and Sora held his breath, waiting to hear it again. The sound rang out once more, and this time, Sora recognised it.</p><p>KITTY!!!! his brain screamed, all attention suddenly laser focussed. There was a cat somewhere nearby, and he was going to find it.</p><p>Behind the hedges and the fence, there was a slim alleyway, the paving so worn down that it was practically gravel, that ran between Sora’s backyard and the backyards of the houses opposite. Sora glanced over his shoulder and saw his mom still sitting in the doorway to the house. Seeing his face turned towards her, she waved. Sora gave a half-hearted wave back.</p><p>Turning away, Sora bit his lip. He couldn’t search the alleyway for the kitty without getting in trouble for leaving the yard.</p><p>“Here, kitty, kitty,” he called as softly as he could in his warbling, young voice. “Here, kitty!”</p><p>As he called, he got down on his knees, not caring that mud was soaking into his trousers, and crawled inside the nearest bush. He looked around, but he couldn’t see anything other than leaves and branches – not even an interesting bug in sight.</p><p>The cat’s squeaky meow rang out softly again. Grunting with the effort, Sora forced his way through the bushes from one end of the yard to the other, but again found nothing. Just as he was about to give up, he heard the meow much nearer to him. Pressing his nose up against the white-painted fence boards, he saw a bedraggled grey ball of fluff forlornly stumbling down the alleyway towards him.</p><p>“Baby kitty!” he exclaimed, soft and delighted. Hearing him, the kitten paused and looked around, ears twitching. When it saw Sora, it stumbled backwards, startled. Not wanting to scare the kitten, Sora solemnly watched it with wide eyes.</p><p>“Come here, kitty,” he said. “I won’t hurt you.”</p><p>The kitten cocked its head. Then, it began warily walking towards him. Still, Sora did not move. Soon, it was only a breath away. Striking aquamarine eyes met wide blue ones as the kitten regarded Sora as solemnly as he was regarding it.</p><p>Up close, it was clear the kitten was lost. Not only was it wet and muddy, but it had a small red scratch on its dark grey nose. It wore a green collar which matched its eyes, adorned with a small gold bell. To Sora, it looked sad.</p><p>Tentatively, Sora stuck his hand out through the boards of the fence for the kitten to sniff. It did so, then butted its head up against Sora’s hand.</p><p>“You want to come with me?” Sora asked. “I’ll give you some tuna.”</p><p>He’d have to ask his mom, but his mom was really nice. <em>Of course</em> she would help a sad lost kitten.</p><p>The kitten meowed. Then, it nodded. To an adult, that might have been strange, but Sora thought nothing of it.</p><p>“Yay!” he said. His hand shot out and closed over the nape of the kitten’s neck. Before it could so much as squeak in protest, he was dragging it backwards through the gap in the fence boards and holding it tightly in his arms, pressing it to his chest. Stunned, the kitten was silent as Sora backed through the hedge, his messy brown hair becoming even more disastrous as it collected dirt, leaves, and twigs.</p><p>Once on the other side, the kitten began to squirm and meow, but Sora kept a tight grip on its neck and body.</p><p>“Mom! Mom!” he yelled, running back towards the house. “Look what I found! A kitty cat!”</p><p>Startled, Sora’s mom stood. When he arrived at the door, completely dishevelled and muddy and with an equally dishevelled and muddy kitten clutched in his arms, she looked as if she was caught between a sigh and a laugh.</p><p>“Sora!” she scolded. “Where did you get that poor cat from?”</p><p>“He’s lost, Mom,” Sora said, turning his big blue eyes and a small pout on her. “We have to help him!”</p><p>Taking another look at how messy the kitten was, Sora’s mom shook her head, a wry smile on her lips. Sora amped up his pout and the kitten widened its eyes.</p><p>She relented. “Alright, we’ll see if we can find his owner,” she said. “He can’t have walked far. For now, the two of you both need a bath.”</p><p>“Yay!” Sora exclaimed again. In his excitement, he accidentally let the still-wriggling kitten slip from his grasp. It shot into the house, where it sped to a corner and gave Sora a withering kitten look of disapproval for the manhandling. Sora slipped into the house in pursuit of it. With a smile, his mom closed the back door and set about preparing to take care of her son and his fluffy new charge.</p><p>⁂</p><p>After baths, clean clothes for Sora, and tuna snacks all around, Sora’s mom examined the cat’s collar and found that it had no information about the cat on it, only the unhelpful gold bell. Sora knew right away what that meant. This was <em>his</em> cat now. His mom still seemed determined to put up posters and look for its owner, but Sora didn’t hear a word of it.</p><p>The kitten was aloof and wary, but seemed to relax as the day wore on. At night, Sora’s mom let the kitten sleep in a cardboard box lined with an old, soft towel in Sora’s room.</p><p>The next morning, Sora lay in bed for just a moment before remembering <em>his new kitten</em> was just a few feet away in its cardboard box. Eyes snapping open in excitement, he bolted upright and threw off the covers. But when he looked over to the box, there was no kitten there.</p><p>Instead, the cardboard box had been ripped open at the corner seam, and spilling out the side was <em>another kid</em> – a boy about Sora’s age but with fluffy grey hair, just like the kitten’s fur. He was cuddled up around the towel that had been in the bottom of the box, face pressed against the rug.</p><p>Cautiously, Sora hopped out of bed. The slight thump of his bare feet on the floor made the boy’s grey cat ears twitch. He gave a soft snuffle, a snort, and then a cry of surprise as he came awake with a start and sat up.</p><p>As with the day before, Sora found himself gazing back into a pair of aquamarine eyes – the exact same colour as the ones the kitten had had. Sora immediately realised that he didn’t have a new pet – he had a new best friend!</p><p>“Hi, I’m Sora. What’s your name?” Sora said politely, though he was starting to bounce a little from excitement.</p><p>The boy looked at him with wide eyes for a moment. “I’m Riku,” he said. “Where am I?”</p><p>⁂</p><p>Sora could barely laugh with how breathless he was, lungs heaving as legs and heart pumped their hardest to send him flying down the sidewalk. Just slightly behind him he could hear Riku give a choked shout of annoyance, probably a complaint that Sora had cheated by giving himself a head start. Out of the schoolyard, past the coffee shop, past the donut shop and the laundromat they flew. Sora’s heart sang, determination to beat Riku home running through his veins like a shot of gasoline.</p><p>No way had he cheated, not when they did this every single day. The school-bell would ring, they would toss their stuff into their bags, and as soon as they saw each other outside the front door of the school, they’d take off. If Riku hadn’t anticipated it, that was his fault. <em>He</em> had an advantage, with those slightly longer legs of his.</p><p>Silvery grey flashed in Sora’s peripheral vision, and he knew that Riku was gaining on him. At the corner that turned into their residential neighbourhood Sora cut him off, but he knew it wouldn’t be enough for him to win. Indeed, now that they were away from prying eyes in passing cars, Riku’s movements changed, his posture becoming more animalistic, lower to the ground. As they turned into the private alley behind their house, neck and neck at this point, a fluffy grey cat shot out from behind Sora like a rocket heading for the moon.</p><p>The cat reached the gate that led to their yard and leapt for the top like a champion vaulter, kicking off from the top of the gate and launching himself into the yard. It was at that moment that Sora reached the gate, threw it open, and, with chest bursting, flung himself and his bag down onto the grass beside the panting, exhausted cat.</p><p>“Now who cheated?” Sora groaned. When he turned his head towards the cat, he saw Riku shift from tiny grey cat back into a mostly human boy again. One with shoulder-blade-length silver hair, fluffy cat ears, slit-pupiled aquamarine eyes, and worst of all, a smug grin covering his slightly pointed teeth.</p><p>“You started it, and I won,” Riku retorted breathlessly. Both of their chests were still rising and falling rapidly as their hearts started to calm. “Loser’s punishment today is... you get to make the snacks. Tuna melts. With relish in them. The good stuff.”</p><p>“Fiiiiiine,” Sora whined, just to be contrary. Really, he couldn’t complain about having to make delicious tuna sandwiches. The “punishment” for losing the race could range from having to clean something for the winner to actually doing a part of the winner’s homework for him, so this wasn’t so bad.</p><p>“And don’t cheat next time, and I won’t have to turn into a cat.”</p><p>Sora snorted and socked Riku on the shoulder. They lay there for a few more moments, relaxing after their exertion like they did every day.</p><p>For some reason, Sora couldn’t look away from Riku’s face. His body had mostly calmed down by now, but he was glad he still had the excuse of having been running to hide the fact that part of the flush on his face was just from, well... looking. At Riku.</p><p>For the past eleven years, Riku had been Sora’s best friend. Lately, Sora had started noticing things about him that he probably shouldn’t have. Like how soft and glowing Riku’s eyes could be, how handsome his long silver hair was, how strong and determined and gentle he could be. He hated to admit it, but those little fangs Riku had, even when he appeared to be fully human in all other respects but his eyes? Cute. The way his pupils turned to slits in low light or when he was feeling strong emotion? Intense.</p><p>Sora knew he should say something, but he was afraid that Riku could never feel the same way about a boring old human. Let alone one he’d seen shoot chocolate milk out of his nose one time when they were ten because he’d accidentally said “toot-a-rattie” instead of “ratatouille”.  </p><p>Then again, it wasn’t like Riku had any options from his own species. Although Sora’s mom had tried for months, she had completely failed to find his family or where he came from, which was why he now lived with Sora. For all they knew, Riku came from Mars or Pluto or Gallifrey or something, as none of his memories from before he’d appeared in Sora’s backyard seemed to correspond to any place on Earth. Apparently, Riku came from an entire country populated by people just like him. Now, the only thing he had to remind him of his life there was the small green collar he’d been wearing when they found him, made into a bracelet that he never took off.</p><p>“Hey, Sora. Earth to Sora,” Riku said, waving his hand in front of Sora’s face and making his bracelet’s bell jingle quietly.</p><p>“Ehh?” Sora said, blinking as Riku sat up. For a moment, as Riku leaned over him, his silver hair framing the space between their faces, Sora’s heart rate picked up –</p><p>And then Riku was unceremoniously hauling Sora upright. “Let’s go, master chef,” Riku said teasingly.</p><p>With a shaky laugh, Sora snatched his bag up from the lawn and followed Riku into the house.</p><p>Once inside, they set about the remainder of their after-school routine, ditching shoes and jackets and setting out their books and papers to do homework in the kitchen together. Normally they might mess around a bit first, but school was ending in just a few weeks, and they had a lot of studying to do before finals arrived. Sora made Riku’s tuna melts for both of them and set them on the table so they could munch while they worked. Sora’s mom – Riku’s “Auntie” – was out working and would be home in a few hours, so for now it was just the two of them.</p><p>With a sigh, Sora opened his math workbook and started biting on the end of his pencil as he flipped through the pages. Still in a bit of a restless mood, he aimlessly read the instructions for the homework three times in a row before finally managing to grasp them.</p><p>As he started attempting to solve the first problem, he felt a warm touch on his knee and looked up. Apparently, he’d been bouncing his legs, and Riku had put a hand out to still him. Riku gave Sora a small smile, his head tilted and the fondness clear in his eyes. His hand brushed against Sora’s as he retracted it and returned to his own work.</p><p>Sora took a deep breath, feeling the blush rise to his cheeks. But before he could make a fool of himself further, the doorbell rang. Sora’s brow furrowed in confusion.</p><p>“Did Mom order something from the internet again?” he asked, but Riku just shrugged. Throwing down his pencil, Sora made his way to the front door and took a look through the peephole.</p><p>Outside stood a normal-looking man in, of all things, a formal suit. The man looked too professional to be dangerous, and was probably lost, so Sora opened the door.</p><p>“Hello? Can I help you?” Sora said.</p><p>“Is this the Amazaki residence?”</p><p>Slowly, Sora nodded.</p><p>“I’m looking for Riku,” the man said. “Is he home?”</p><p>Immediately, Sora bristled. Professional man in a suit looking for Riku for no reason? If Lilo and Stitch had taught him one thing, it was that the government liked to kidnap aliens. Riku had been homeschooled for all of elementary and middle school while he learnt to control his shifting, and in public he was always careful to hide his ears and not turn into a cat. Some of the neighbours had probably seen him, but he’d been shifting in the alleyway behind the house for so long that surely the time for the neighbours to report him to the news or the police had passed. But what if they’d slipped up somewhere else?</p><p>“Uh, I don’t know anyone by that name. Sorry,” Sora said, making to shut the door. But as he did so, he saw the man’s form began to change in a very familiar way. In just a few moments, he had transformed from an ordinary man in a suit to a black and white tuxedo cat.</p><p>Sora gaped. Then, he slammed the door shut.</p><p>“Riku!” he yelled into the kitchen.</p><p>A moment later, Riku’s head popped out into the hallway, cat ears twitching and pupils beginning to narrow. Sora didn’t waste any time admiring them.</p><p>“There’s a guy outside who just turned into a cat,” Sora hissed. “He’s looking for you. I told him to go away, but... do you want to talk to him?”</p><p>Riku’s pupils narrowed even further, and as he came out into the hallway Sora could see his tail bristling with shock. Then, it began to sway back and forth in unease as Riku pushed past Sora to look out the peephole.</p><p>“He’s still there,” Riku reported. Bumping him aside with his hip, Sora had his own look and saw the black and white cat – man – sitting at the end of the drive, patiently watching the house.</p><p>“So? What should we do?”</p><p>If it was up to Sora, he would tell that man to go away right now and never, ever come back. If this man had come to – to <em>take</em> Riku –</p><p>Sora tried to tell himself that was impossible, but his stomach had started to feel like lead.</p><p>“We should talk to him,” Riku said. He hesitated. “That’s okay, right?”</p><p>Wordless, Sora nodded. He knew Riku would be able to read the unease in his face, but neither of them said anything as Riku smoothly pulled in his ears and tail, then opened the door. To their surprise, there were now <em>two</em> black and white cats sitting at the end of the drive. Seeing Riku, the two of them morphed back into humans – the second one was a woman, also in a suit and with a haircut that matched her male counterpart’s – and approached the house once more.</p><p>“Greetings,” the woman said, looking Riku over. “You’re Riku Ohji?”</p><p>“That’s me,” said Riku. He looked and sounded calm and steady, but Sora, hovering behind him, could tell that he was nervous, too.</p><p>The woman’s eye fell on Riku’s green collar-bracelet, and she sucked in a breath. She nudged her companion’s arm with her elbow and tilted her head towards the bracelet. Sora could see their pupils going narrow like Riku’s always did.</p><p>Seeming to be in agreement about something, both suited visitors straightened up and looked pointedly at Riku.</p><p>“Hail, Prince Riku of Feliformia,” they both said, putting their curled hands to their foreheads in a strange salute.</p><p>Sora burst into laughter. He couldn’t help it. They were both so serious that it was absurd. “If Riku’s the cat prince, then I’m the cat princess.”</p><p>The two visitors frowned at him, and Sora gulped. He also noticed that Riku wasn’t laughing.</p><p>“You are hardly felidae. You’re not “cat” anything,” the man said in confusion, and Sora just looked at Riku and shrugged.</p><p>“I don’t know what that is.”</p><p>“It’s what I am, Sora,” Riku said, his voice sombre. “I remember.”</p><p>⁂</p><p>“Why didn’t you tell me you’re a <em>prince</em>?”</p><p>Five exhausting hours later and the two tuxedo cats had finally left, and Sora had cornered Riku in his bedroom. His mom was downstairs preparing dinner – she’d spoken with the tuxedo cats too, and had been the one to tell them to leave so she and her family could breathe. They were all strung out from the afternoon’s events, but Sora couldn’t wait another second to talk to Riku.</p><p>Riku’s pupils narrowed slightly, his tail waving in unease. Sora caught a rare flash of white claw as Riku folded his arms defensively. “You <em>know</em> why,” he said.</p><p>Sora scowled, because he did, even if he didn’t like it. The story as he understood it, as explained to them by Ricia and Elgar, the two tuxedo cats:</p><p>There was another world called Feliformia, which was close enough to Sora’s world that the two worlds actually touched. However, most humans were unaware of its existence because the veil which separated the two was only visible on the Feliformian side, like a two-way mirror. In Feliformia, all the people could transform from cats to humans and back again, just like Riku. Most people spent their lives in some kind of middle stage with ears and a tail, the way Riku tended to do when he was at home.</p><p>Riku was supposedly the prince of Feliformia. How had he gotten from Feliformia to Sora’s world? He had fallen through a small tear in the veil between their worlds. Normally, purposeful travel was accomplished by having a Feliformian wizard (yes, Sora did imagine a normal cat in a pointy hat with stars on it) open a hole in the veil on purpose. Then, the people doing the travelling would ride a magic carpet through the hole and into the sky on Earth. When someone fell through a hole by accident, it had a tendency to confuse them or give them mild amnesia. At five years old, Riku had been too young to understand what had happened to him or properly express how scrambled his mind was. That was why his memories of childhood had always been so vague.</p><p>Now they were here. With Riku suddenly a prince.</p><p>And being asked to go back to Feliformia to see his mom, dad, and six little sisters and brothers he had never even known he had.</p><p>Sora scowled. “You seriously trust these guys? We just met them today.”</p><p>“Which other felidae that we’ve met do you want me to trust, Sora?” Riku said, a little snappishly, then sighed. Sora could see how stressed Riku was in the line of his spine, the way his ears were flattened towards his head.</p><p>“Look,” Riku tried again, a little more calmly. “All the stuff they talked about just made sense to me. When they talked about the Catmint Gardens with the singing flowers... I felt like I’d been there before. I remember a wizard making these coloured balls of light for people to look at for fun, and magic carpets and stuff. And you know I’ve always remembered a world where everyone is like me.”</p><p>Sora swallowed, fear rising up in his throat. “So you’re really going there?” he asked in a small voice.</p><p>Riku paused. “Well... I want to. I have so many questions. I want to meet my family. I just... I need to know.”</p><p>Sora thought back to all the small crises Riku had experienced through the years due to being a felidae with no one to get help from. That one time he got stuck as a cat for a week – or wondering if it was normal to be more likely to turn into one when it was the full moon. Riku had never had a proper eye exam in his life due to his slitted pupils, and they didn’t know if his cat form needed to be checked over by a doctor or a vet the same as his human form. Sora and his mom had always felt bad about not being able to answer those questions, so really... shouldn’t he stop being so selfish and just let Riku have this chance?</p><p>Even if it meant being separated from him for the first time in 11 years.</p><p>“I’m going to miss you,” Sora said, trying to keep his voice from cracking as he turned his head away.</p><p>“Hey, I’m not leaving <em>tomorrow</em>,” Riku said, putting his hand on Sora’s shoulder. “It’s gonna be a few weeks.”</p><p>Sora’s mom had insisted Riku stay until the end of the school year, which Sora was incredibly grateful for.</p><p>“I know, I know. I support you, I just... I hope you come back soon.”</p><p>Turning, Sora gave Riku a smile which he hoped wasn’t as watery or as tremulous as it felt. At that, Riku pulled him close and hugged him.</p><p>“Thanks for being there for me,” he said. “You’re my best friend, Sora.”</p><p>“Yeah, you too,” Sora said, holding on to Riku as tightly as his arms would allow him.</p><p>⁂</p><p>Two weeks passed. Thinking of the future, Sora felt sick to his stomach, but he tried to keep his mind off of the end of the school year and just pretend like things were normal. He found himself petting Riku’s tail on the couch just to feel the fur brush through his fingers without even wanting to tease Riku by tugging on it, or just staring at Riku whenever he thought Riku wasn’t looking. Ricia and Elgar had given Riku a new ornamental collar, this one embroidered in many shimmering shades of green, shot through with silver threads and hung with a silver bell that chimed softly when struck instead of jingling. It was beautiful, but every time he saw it Sora felt like his throat was closing up.</p><p>A few times Riku caught him looking and asked him if he was okay, but Sora would just shrug and say that he’d been spacing out. He refused to take back his agreement – letting Riku go to Feliformia was the right thing to do. Even though it hurt this much, it wasn’t about him. This was for Riku.</p><p>Sora was probably going to fail all his finals, but he didn’t even care. It didn’t help that he could see the suitcase in Riku’s room every time he passed by the open door. All he could think of as he lay awake at night was how his best friend might be leaving forever. And he might never know how much he meant to Sora.</p><p>The last day of school arrived: a half-day of classes, dawning grey and moody just like Sora. When he woke up and saw the date on his phone, he felt sick to his stomach. He trudged to school beside Riku as the wind stirred the grass, barely ate lunch, and yet somehow made it through those torturous hours of nothing as the school year came to a close. How his classmates could be so happy that it was summer, Sora had forgotten how to understand.</p><p>At the entrance to the school that afternoon, Sora said to Riku, “Hey. Let’s not race today.”</p><p>Riku looked at Sora as if he had grown a second head. “What, afraid I’ll beat you?”</p><p>"No. Just trying to – I dunno – savour the moment?” Sora tried.</p><p>Riku’s questioning look melted into softness.</p><p>“Okay,” he said, brushing the back of Sora’s hand.</p><p>As they walked back to Sora’s house, Sora was keenly aware of Riku’s presence beside him, warm and solid, with the slightest clean, earthy scent. A few minutes into the walk Riku began to purr, deep in his chest, whether to convey contentment or to comfort Sora, he didn’t know. The air was mostly still, now, a bit humid, and the sky remained overcast and grey.</p><p>Past the coffee shop, past the donut shop and the laundromat, each building seeming to take on new significance, dragging slowly by at a walking pace and yet flying all too fast. Sora made as if to take Riku’s hand, but then chickened out and let his hands hang limply at his sides.</p><p>As they turned into the alley that ran behind their house, Sora spotted it: the place he’d found Riku all those years ago, now even more green and overgrown than it had been back then. It was at that point that he felt he couldn’t take one more step. Riku kept walking for a moment, then noticed Sora wasn’t beside him and turned back to see what he was doing.</p><p>“Sora, what are you doing?”</p><p>Sora’s hands squeezed into fists. He thought one more time about Riku just leaving and never coming back again. And that was when he’d had enough.</p><p>“Riku, you can’t go to Feliformia!”</p><p>Riku’s purr abruptly cut off. “Huh? What?”</p><p>“You can’t go,” Sora said again, determined. “I know you belong there, but I <em>need</em> you, Riku. You’re my best friend!”</p><p>Riku scowled. “And what about my family? Don’t you think they need me, too?”</p><p>“That’s why I didn’t say anything before. But they made it sound like I’ll never see you again. I can’t just lose you.”</p><p>“What? You think I’d just leave and never come back?” Riku said, sounding more perplexed than angry. Sora felt a raindrop trickle down the collar of his shirt.</p><p>“No, it’s not that, I just – You <em>can’t</em> go, not when I – I have stuff I need to tell you, I –”</p><p>Sora took a deep breath, but before he could admit to Riku what he’d known – and hoped Riku would guess at – for so long...</p><p>Riku grabbed Sora’s face in his hands and kissed him. Sora was momentarily shocked. A thrill of complete joy and surprise ran through his body as he realised that Riku felt the way he did, too. There was nothing to be afraid of. Instead, he kissed Riku back eagerly and delightedly, grabbing the front of Riku’s shirt with both hands. Riku’s lips were soft and warm, his scent magnified with Sora pulled in so close.</p><p>Sora closed his eyes, feeling heaven in every second that ticked by. Soon, he opened his mouth – and then pulled back with a startled laugh.</p><p>“Riku, your tongue.”</p><p>Riku’s eyes went wide before he realised that he’d let his form slip and was now sporting not only his cat ears, tail, and a few fur patches, but a slightly too-rough tongue as well. The faces he made while concentrating only on his mouth to make his tongue go back to human normal made Sora want to break into a fit of delighted giggles. He loved Riku <em>so much</em>. But it only took a moment before Riku was kissing him soundly again.</p><p>This time, Riku’s tongue slipped into Sora’s mouth in a rush of smooth heat and tingles that went straight to Sora’s belly. He could barely feel the light sprinkling of rain drops that was cooling their burning shoulders as he kissed back with eagerness.</p><p>Riku drew back slightly for a second time. “I have an idea,” he said, pressing his forehead to Sora’s, a little out of breath. “What if you came with me?”</p><p>“Like... I go with you to Feliformia?” Sora asked, thumbing over the knuckles of Riku’s hand that was now gripping his waist. “Of course I want to come with you! I just thought it wasn’t allowed.”</p><p>“I thought <em>I</em> was supposed to be a prince,” Riku retorted. “And I say you should come.”</p><p>All the remainder of Sora’s fears drained away. Smiling wide, he went to kiss Riku again, just when the sky fully opened up.</p><p>“Argh, fuck!” Riku exclaimed as the two of them were instantly soaked.</p><p>Sora started laughing, seeing Riku’s expression as his fur got wet. He couldn’t help it – his emotions were still a turbulent mix of various different kinds of joy.</p><p>“Come on!” Riku said, grabbing at Sora’s wrist and starting off towards the house. Sora followed. As they approached the door, Riku was already stripping off his soggy t-shirt, and as soon as they were inside he threw it at Sora, who only laughed some more. After Sora went into his room to change, Riku re-appeared a few minutes later in dry clothing. They spent the rest of the afternoon together in Sora’s room, finally allowing the once-unsaid to breathe.</p><p>⁂</p><p>Sora’s phone rang. He quickly swiped to answer the call, then lifted it to his ear.</p><p>“Hi, Mom!”</p><p>Riku’s purr abruptly cut off. “Put it on speaker,” he hissed, whacking Sora’s leg lightly with the back of his hand. The servant cleaning up after their lunch together with Riku’s eleven-year-old sextuplet siblings – Kairi, Naminé, Xion, Ventus, Vanitas, and Roxas – and their governess looked at Riku for guidance on whether to continue removing dirty dishes and dropped crumbs, and Riku motioned for them to continue. Sora hit the speaker button.</p><p>“– are you, honey? How’s Riku?” Sora’s mom said as Sora set the phone on a yellow cushion beside him.</p><p>“I’m here, Auntie,” Riku said. “We’re doing well.”</p><p>“Riku! It’s so lovely to hear the two of your voices. Where are you? I haven’t interrupted anything important, have I?”</p><p>Sora looked around. Where were they, indeed? Why, in the lap of luxury, stuffed full of whitefish salad sandwiches, curled up together on the massive couch-thing in one of the living rooms of the palace’s royal quarters. In Feliformia, apparently, the couches took up half the room, designed so that an entire family of felidae could fit on one couch whether they were in cat form, in human form, or somewhere in between. The one they were on at that moment was pale blue, piled high with pink and yellow cushions. The other half of the room was occupied by a cream-coloured carpet and some wooden tables so polished they were glowing. Sora had heard that in winter, the entire couch-thing would be heated.</p><p>Sora was leaning against a cushion and Riku was reclining into his lap. Moments earlier, Sora’s fingers had been running through Riku’s hair and gently scratching behind his ears.</p><p>"We’re just chilling,” Sora finally answered his mom’s question. “Riku has some more tutoring in an hour, though.”</p><p>“I can’t believe I have summer school,” Riku groaned.</p><p>Sora smirked. “At least I only have to do the interesting stuff. We have a field trip to see the veil tomorrow.”</p><p>Riku was learning the basics of Feliformia, starting from square one, as well as taking special lessons about the royal family and royal duties. The latter, Sora usually skipped, but he liked the aforementioned field trips. The previous one had been to the Catmint Gardens to see Riku’s singing flowers.</p><p>“I’m sure royal tutoring is more interesting than chemistry, Riku, honey. I can’t wait to hear all about it when you come back.”</p><p>“Just in time for more school,” Sora said, still teasing a little, and Riku rolled his eyes. Really, Sora was secretly relieved that Riku was allowed to go back to Earth at all. Spending their summers in Feliformia and the school year at home was a fantastic outcome, as far as Sora was concerned. He liked it here, and Riku’s family was really nice. His parents, the two regents, were so compassionate that it was no wonder the kingdom was flourishing so much. If Riku could never leave Feliformia again, Sora would’ve stayed with him no matter what, but he was glad he didn’t have to choose between Riku and his mom.</p><p>“So, boys. Tell me how your day has gone. Anything fun on the agenda?” Sora’s mom asked. Sora and Riku launched into a description of their lunch with Riku’s siblings. </p><p>“And that’s how Ventus ended up stuck in a tree because of a pineapple,” Sora concluded a story. Sora was grinning, Sora’s mom was laughing over the phone, and Riku was doing a quiet, unintentional semi-purr.</p><p>“Thanks for the storytime, darlings. I’ll let you go now – I need to go pick up the car from the mechanic’s. Take care, alright? Love you boys.”</p><p>“We will. Love you too,” Riku and Sora dutifully chorused. With the call ended, Sora put the phone back on the cushion beside them. The servant who had been cleaning up gave a quiet cough to get their attention, and Sora realised that the room was now clean, the chaos of six kids and two teens at one meal somehow magically erased.</p><p>“Yes?” Riku said politely.</p><p>“Do you require any further assistance, Prince Riku and Master Sora?”</p><p>“We’re fine, thanks,” Riku said. The servant dipped their head, whiskers twitching, and left.</p><p>“We should’ve asked them to bring us snacks,” Sora said, stretching a little as Riku resettled himself into Sora’s lap. “I know I’m not the prince here, but I really feel like – like –”</p><p>“The cat princess?” Rik supplied. “That’s what you said that one time when Elgar came to our house.”</p><p>“I’m not a cat princess.”</p><p>“You’re <em>my</em> cat princess.”</p><p>“Am not!”</p><p>“Okay. You’re my human prince.” Riku capitulated easily, probably because he knew being so cheesy would make Sora blush. But he took Sora’s hand and kissed between Sora’s knuckles until Sora leaned over and kissed him on the lips.</p><p>From long ago in Sora’s muddy backyard, to this blissfully domestic moment in a world far away in the sky, Sora knew he wouldn’t change a thing about his and Riku’s relationship. Despite all of his fears, the two of them were together and the future looked great.</p><p>“Okay, fine,” Sora said, a few minutes later, slightly out of breath, “you win.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I derived Sora’s last name (Amazaki) from a kanji for sky, 天. Riku, of course, is just prince (王子, ouji/ohji), lol. Additionally, "feliformia" is the suborder of cats in binomial nomenclature (the naming classification system scientists use for all living things), while "felidae" is their family.</p><p>Comments always welcome!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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